The State of Things
I’d better get a post up if this blog isn’t to go a whole second month without any. The summer holidays took over: first I was out in Australia for a few weeks with the kids visiting family, and when we got back I began decluttering, culling five hundred old books and listing a bunch on Amazon, carting stuff to charity shops, auctioning on eBay, and tidying up things that had accumulated over the years. All still ongoing. We’ve also had trips to Glasgow, to Glentress for mountain-biking, a few Fringe shows, friends visiting, and the kids going back to school; and a disaster or two, such as our son’s new bike getting pinched last week.
So there hasn’t been much time for stopping here to comment on the state of the world, sorry as it is. Not that much has changed since the last times I did: Brexit is still a shambles, Trump has dropped all pretense of being anything other than fascist, and the climate is still inexorably changing.
But I do have a ridiculous backlog of links to post, so here’s a selection.
Britain’s decline and fall. Theresa May and the Holy Grail. How the EU Referendum was hijacked. More higher education could have prevented Brexit.
“A bit of me is dying. But I can’t stay.” EU nationals know that staying on is too big a gamble. Even immigrant managers fear Brexit.
Brexit is going to be far worse than anyone could have guessed. The government’s customs union plan is a dog’s breakfast. Britain is hostage to its own delusions. Has anyone bothered to ask what the EU gets out of all this?
The week Trump lost the South China Sea. How Trump is transforming rural America. Trump is the best autocrat. The best.
Obama’s secret struggle to retaliate against Putin. One man’s mission to rip up democracy. Unlearning the myth of American innocence.
Summers are getting hotter. All hell is breaking loose as the tundra thaws. Sea-level rise could destroy Tampa Bay if a major hurricane hits. Meanwhile, Houston.
Saving South Georgia. When life on earth was nearly extinguished. Fossil fuel subsidies are five trillion dollars per year.
South Park raised a generation of trolls. Have smartphones destroyed a generation?
Make your own Oreo fidget spinner. The invention of the Slinky.
Standups on why they quit comedy.
In the future, your corpse could be dissolved.
Yellow raspberries at Glentress, August 2017.